I was looking at my passport yesterday and smiled at the collection of stickers I have built up on the back. I still have a long way to go before surpassing the number of stickers on my old passport (not pictured), but it reminded me that every mark tells a story.
Recently, I was chatting with someone who pulled off his stickers almost immediately after they were affixed. He said they were unsightly and did not want them “cluttering” his passport. At the same time, this guy got fake passport stamps at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. There, it is possible to stamp your passport with special Checkpoint Charlie and/or DDR (East German) border stamps (Russian and West German stamps as well). Although the DDR stamps were genuine, East Germany ceased to be a country 30 years ago. The Checkpoint Charlie stamp is just a souvenir stamp…
Image: Tim Richards
Without even considering whether defacing a passport in that manner runs afoul of any rules or regulations, I cannot understand who would put fake stamps in their passport? Why? The idea is revolting to building a genuine collection of stamps. And the idea that the security interview stickers often placed on the back of passports must be removed strikes me as tampering with evidence…
Now there is one exception. When I visited Lebanon, I knew how strict they were about Israeli stamps. I did not have one in my passport, but I did have a prominent white sticker on the back with Hebrew writing on it. That sticker was peeled off before I stepped onto my flight to Beirut…
CONCLUSION
So how about you? Do you like collecting security stickers on the back of your passport? How about “fake” passport stamps?
I have a few full page Iraqi stamps/visas in my passport that always get extra special attention no matter what country happens to be inspecting the passport.
I’ll admit that I once allowed a museum to stamp my passport. It was free. It looked like a country’s stamp.
As for stickers, I leave them on as an authentic souvenir that I didn’t ask for.
“Without even considering whether defacing a passport in that manner”
Calm down, Helen Lovejoy.
“And the idea that the security interview stickers often placed on the back of passports must be removed strikes me as tampering with evidence…”
I think it’s ok to remove them once you’ve left the airport you got it pasted on, no?
I keep my passport in a leather passport holder, they always place the stickers on the holder so my passport is clean.
Although not fake, as of 2012, Dominica lets you have a souvenir stamp if you go and ask for it, since they do lot stamp your passport upon arrival by sea. You’d have to go to an office in downtown Rosseau to get it.
Not knowing who’s going to get in a diplomatic tiff with who, I pull the security tags off the back of the passport once a given trip has finished. Mostly because the vast majority of such stickers are unintelligible to me and I’d have no easy way to identify which one came from where.
I peel off the stickers but keep them as a souvenir. When I was in Liechtenstein I paid 3CHF for a passport stamp only since Liechtenstein is a real country and the stamp does look “official”. In Berlin I didn’t put the DDR stamp or a checkpoint Charlie Stamp to me that would feel more “unofficial”.
I take the stickers off after I return to the US but leave them on for the entirety of the current trip.
I also miss collecting as many stamps as before, because some countries now just give you a slip of paper and don’t stamp your actual passport. So I’m a sad lonely nerd and tape those pieces of paper into my passport pages 😀
I take the security stickers off since they’re unsightly and pointless. @Lucky has a story about how not pulling the Israeli security sticker off held him up in Beirut. I didn’t even know about unofficial souvenir passport stamps until recently when I went to Machu Picchu. I did stamp my passport with it because it was there, but am not a huge fan of it. As you say, I like having my passport stamp collection being “official”.
Worked at a visitor center in Yellowstone for several years. All NPS units have a “passport” stamp meant for a souvenir book you can purchase.
Lots of European visitors cheerfully stamp their real, government-issue, passports. Asked one fellow about it and he showed me pages full of similar unofficial stamps and he told me he has never had a customs official remark on his “collection”
Oh the stickers definitely go off as soon as I am on the plane. I don’t like uniformed people tampering with my passport.
And definitely no fake stamps. I am always running out of pages way before the expiration date so I really don’t need more unnecessary stuff in there. I have about 10 passports full with real stamps at home so I don’t need the fake ones.
Especially the one page visa stickers like eg Tanzania or Zambia are using and the one page ‘pledge’ stamp of Palau is very inefficient use of passport pages.
I dont take the stickers off, but just because I worry it will leave a sticky spot on my passport instead.
I can understand people who get the “souvenir” ones when its an official stamp from a country that doesnt stamp at the border, but space is at a premium in my passport and Im not gonna waste it.
I leave all the stickers on also because of the sticky spot. The only fake stamp I have in my passport is the Easter Island Moai that you can get at the post office there.
I don’t really see any passport stamps as fake other than actual attempts at forgery. They are all just a memento of a place you traveled to, is that not what a passport is for? To travel? I have souvenir stamps from San Marino, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, checkpoint Charlie and the Arctic circle in Iceland. What’s so fake about them? They either represent a country which doesn’t normally give out stamps in which case there is nothing illegal or fake about it. If there was then the authorities would clamp down on it, or they represent a popular tourist attraction. No souvenir stamps is trying to pass itself off as a genuine visa stamp so I really don’t see why there is any legal grey area here. I travelled the world for years with souvenir stamps in my old passport and never had a single issue anywhere.
As for stickers. I leave them on.
It really is illegal and in some countries, the souvenir stamps invalidate the passport.
It counts as having been tampered with.
One person I was reading about missed a wedding and was refused boarding because of a stamp she got at the Beirut place mentioned.
I’m OCD about getting hose stickers off ASAP. My souvenir stamps from Ushuaia and Machu Picchu are in the endorsements section of my passport, not the “real” pages… These stamps were given by government bodies after all 🙂
In some countries when you apply for a visa you need to list everywhere you’ve been for the previous 10 years. They cross reference this with stamps in your passport, so I’d certainly not put something that needs further explanation. I saw a few people stamp their passports with the North Korea stamp available on the south side of the DMZ, now that’s irresponsible.
Interesting that when clearing security for my flight AMS-MSP yesterday they checked my passport, asked security questions and did not place any stickers on the back of the passport. I wonder if those are obsolete as they all look very similar so not sure how effective they really are.